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BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


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AN  APPEAL 


AMERICAN  CONGRESS. 


THE  BIBLE  LAW  OF  MAREIAGE 
AGAINST  MOEMONISM. 


5  ^  ^  ^  7 


AN  APPEAL 


AMERICAN  CONGRESS. 


THE  BIBLE  LAW  OF  MARRIAGE  AGAINST  MORMONISM. 

TTIHE  life  of  our  Government  is  free  discussion. 
-*-  This  fundamental  truth  of  popular  liberty  em- 
boldens me  to  address  the  Honorable  Gentlemen 
of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  and  ask  their  indulgence  while 
offering  some  suggestions  on  a  subject  of  great 
importance  to  our  common  country. 

The  Mormon  Question  has  become  one  of  intense 
national  interest;  on  its  solution  depends  the  honor 
or  the  disgrace  of  our  Government.  If  what  is 
now  understood  by  Mormonism,  namely,  the  sys- 
tem of  a  plurality  of  wives,  be  permitted  in  the 
Territory  of  Utah,  and  allowed  a  legal  establish- 
ment under  the  specious  pretence  of  religioua 
liberty,  then  polygamy  will  be  virtually  allowed  in 
every  State  of  the  Union.  The  citizens  of  Utah,  aa 
soon  as  that  Territory  becomes  a  State,  will   be  ^ 


4  AN    APPEAL    TO 

entitled  to  tlie  rights  of  citizenship  in  every  other 
State,  and  thus  the  way  will  be  opened  and  prepared 
for  this  system  of  licentiousness  to  gather  strength 
and  reach  its  victims,  even  here,  in  this,  our  holy 
city,  bearing  the  name  of  Washington,  and  boast- 
ing the  guardianship  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States. 

In  a  book,  recently  published,  I  have  touched 
upon  the  utter  repugnance  of  Mormonism  to  our 
free  institutions.  When  the  question  comes  before 
you,  the  Honorable  Members  who  take  the  side  of 
monogamy  will  have  no  difficulty  in  proving  that 
polygamy  is  incompatible  with  civil  liberty. 

There  is  no  example  to  be  found  in  History  of 
a  Eepublican  Government  permitting  polygamy. 
Not  one.  Surely,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  that 
boasts  of  its  moral  and  political  wisdom,  and  in  this 
"  Great  Republic,"  that  leads  the  world  in  educa- 
tional material  and  moral  improvement,  an  institu- 
tion, which  would  make  us  the  shame  of  civilization 
and  our  Government  the  reproach  of  Freedom,  will 
not  be  tolerated ! 

It  has  been  urged  that  there  are  difficulties  in  the 
way ;  or,  rather,  what  seem  to  be  obstacles  to  the 
direct  action  of  Congress.  Two  arguments  are 
raised  —  not  in  defence  of  polygamy  —  none  save  a 
Mormon  would  do  that — but  arguments  to  show 
that  it  is  impossible,  under  the  Constitution,  or 
impolitic  on  account  of  State  sovereignty  over  do- 


THE    AMERICAN    COKGRESS.  5 

mestic  institutions,  to  deal  directly  with  this  enemy 
of  freedom,  truth,  and  justice. 

So  there  is  recommended  a  resort  to  the  "  Cir- 
cumlocution Ofloice"  tactics.  Mormonism  is  not 
to  be  put  down  because  of  its  own  unlawfulness 
and  its  offence  against  humanity  —  far  worse  than 
piracy  —  but  Congress  is  to  wait  till  Brigham 
Young  does  some  overt  act  that  disturbs  or  resists 
the  authority  of  the  Federal  Government  in  the 
Territory  of  Utah.  This  is  giving  up  the  question 
of  polygamy  as  beyond  the  power  of  the  Central 
Government. 

Allow  me,  with  all  deference  to  the  wisdom  of 
Congress,  to  suggest  a  few  reasons  which  go  to 
prove  that  this  matter  is,  legitimately,  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  General  Government. 

Monogamy  —  one  man  with  one  woman  —  as  the 
true  marriage  union,  is  founded  in  the  nature  of  the 
human  species.  The  equal  ratio  of  increase  of  the 
sexes  proves  that  no  other  system  of  marriage  can-' 
be  just  to  the  man,  any  more  than  to  the  woman. 
Natural  right  and  equal  justice  are  the  basis  of  im- 
provement and  happiness  for  our  race ;  nor  would 
any  true  philosopher  or  wise  legislator  uphold  the 
system  of  a  plurality  of  wives,  even  though  he 
should  discard  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Bible  as 
the  primal  and  eternal  law  of  marriage  for  mankind. 

But,  granting  all  this,  which  I  am  sure  you  will, 
there  is  yet  another  questi  on :  —  Does  the  Constitu- 


6  AN    APPEAL    TO 

tion  of  the  United  States  authorize  or  permit  the 
interference  of  Congress  to  prevent  polygamy  ? 

It  does  —  because  it  guarantees  "  a  Republican 
form  of  Government  to  every  State,''^  Polygamy  de- 
stroys the  fundamental  principle  of  Democratic 
liberty,  by  annihilating  the  right  of  the  wife  to  her 
husband  equally  with  the  right  of  the  husband  to 
his  wife.  The  free  women  citizens  of  the  United 
States  are  thus  disfranchised  of  the  most  important 
right,  natural  and  political,  that  they  hold.  There- 
fore the  State  that  admits  polygamy  is  not  Republi- 
can. Therefore,  in  every  Territory  polygamy  should 
be  made  an  offence,  amenable  to  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  as  piracy  is. 

'No  sane  man  can  deny  that  monogamy  is  the 
true  basis  of  all  Democratic  institutions.  The  right 
of  the  child  to  freedom  rests  on  the  condition  of 
the  mother.  The  woman  is  the  root  of  humanity. 
K  that  root  is  rendered  corrupt,  the  whole  fabric  of 
♦society  becomes  polluted.  Liberty  cannot  live  in 
an  atmosphere  of  moral  death. 

These  elementary  truths  of  human  nature  have 
been  the  basis  of  all  legislation  that  has  had  civil 
freedom  in  view.  Freemen  in  every  age  of  the 
world  have  founded  their  laws  on  this  idea  of  true 
marriage.  Lawgivers  of  every  language  that  has 
had  "Republic,"  or  its  equivalent  of  free  institutions 
to  express,  have  united  in  guarding  the  right  of  the 
woman  to  her  own  husband  —  to  his  name^  care, 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  7 

protection,  and  love,  without  rival  in  the  home 
where  the  children  of  this  sacred  union  were  to  be 
reared  as  citizens  of  free  States.  Jew,  Greek, 
Roman,  Goth,  Italian,  Swiss  —  none  have  allowed 
polygamy  to  be  established  or  recognized  by  their 
laws,  civil  or  sacerdotal.  It  has  been  an  offence 
against  law,  if  not  always  punished  by  law.  Such 
transgressions  always  indicate  corruption  of  political 
as  well  as  of  moral  virtue. 

Search  out  the  cause  of  the  decay  of  every  per- 
ished Republic,  and  you  will  find  it  was  licentiousness ^ 
or  the  desecration  of  the  primal  law  of  marriage, 
which  was  the  canker-worm  at  the  root  of  the  sacred 
tree  of  liberty,  causing  its  fall,  and  thus  crushing 
out  the  life  of  free  institutions  by  destroying  the 
fundamental  basis  on  which  civil  freedom  must  rest, 
to  wit,  justice  and  purity  in  the  marriage  relation. 

Polygamy  leads  to  the  concentration  of  power 
and  privilege  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  is  thus 
the  cause  and  instrument  of  tyranny.  If  one  man 
be  permitted  to  have  four  wives,  three  other  men 
in  the  world  are  deprived  of  their  natural  rights  to 
one  wife  each.  The  man  with  four  wives  must 
have  means  of  supporting  them ;  he  must  monopo- 
lize power,  property,  and  privilege ;  while  the  man 
not  permitted  to  marry  one  wife  is  deprived  of 
other  rights  and  reduced  to  an  inferior  position. 
He  is  not  a  man ;  he  is  only  a  soldier,  sailor y  servant, 
eunuch  ! 


8  AN    APPEAL    TO 

The  tendency  of  monarcliical  governments  to 
centralize  power  and  accumulate  privileges  in  the 
hands  of  a  class  or  caste  is  well  known  to  you. 
Under  every  such  Government  in  Christian  Europe 
large  classes  of  men  are  deprived  of  the  means  and 
opportunities  which  would  allow  them  to  marry 
and  rear,  each  one,  his  own  family.  The  evil 
effects  of  this  unnatural  condition  are  obvious  on 
the  moral  character  of  both  men  and  women,  as 
well  as  on  their  material  improvement.  Yet  they 
do  make  progress;  but  wherever  polygamy  is  estab- 
lished, there  the  tyranny  is  complete ;  we  can  have 
no  hope  for  that  race  —  except  the  forlorn  hope 
that  the  institution  may  be  overthrown,  or  the  men, 
who  sustain  it,  destroyed. 

Thus  it  becomes  self-evident  that  Eepublican 
institutions,  and  the  system  of  a  plurality  of  wives, 
now  allowed  in  Utah,  cannot  exist  together. 

Here,  then,  that  important  clause  in  the  Constita- 
tioUy  (see  Article  iv..  Section  iv.,)  which  solemnly 
guarantees  to  "  every  State  in  the  Union  a  Republi- 
can form  of  Government,"  becomes  imperative  and 
can  be  safely  acted  upon. 

The  guarantee  will  surely  be  broken  if  polyg- 
amy be  permitted  in  any  State  or  Territory,  because^ 
the  woman  —  a  free  citizen  —  is  thereby  made  a 
slave,  subjected  to  the  lust  and  will  of  the  man  in 
this  false  marriage,  without  that  check  which  the 
law  of  nature  and  the  law  of  political  equality  alike 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  9 

demand,  and  wliich.  is  as  essential  to  the  safety  of 
civil  freedom  as  it  is  to  the  safety,  honor,  and  hap- 
piness of  woman. 

I  need  not  dwell  longer  on  this  point.  There  are 
eminent  men  in  Congress  who,  I  feel  sure,  will  take 
up  and  argue  this  subject  with  the  persuasive  elo- 
quence which  truth  and  justice  lend  to  questions  of 
the  highest  moral  interest.  It  may  be  safely  as- 
serted, that  there  never  was  a  question  before  an 
American  Congress  so  fraught  with  consequences 
for  good  or  for  evil  to  our  whole  nation  as  this. 

The  struggle  against  Mormonism,  and  its  mon^ 
strous  falsities,  is  rendered  more  arduous  and  criti- 
cal by  the  insidious  craft  it  uses  to  conceal  its  frauds 
on  its  foreign  victims,  who  are  lured  to  this  land  by 
its  specious  promises  of  freedom.  "When  they  reach 
Salt  Lake  City,  and  are  there  subjected  to  a  tyranny 
that  has  no  parallel  in  a  civilized  country,  they  seem 
powerless  to  resist  the  evil.  To  expose  these  falsi- 
ties, and  clear  our  institutions  from  such  polluting 
stain  as  the  presence  of  polygamy  would  leave  on 
our  land,  will  aftbrd  ample  opportunities  for  the 
noblest  display  of  manly  eloquence.  You  will  be 
Paladins,  battling  against  the  fiercest  foes  of  Wo- 
man; Patriots,  upholding  the  dearest  rights  of 
Freedom ;  Christians,  advocating  the  holiest  duties 
of  Humanity.  .    *- 

But  there  is  another  aspect  of  this  Mormon 
question;   its  bearing  on  religious  liberty,  which 


10  AN    APPEAL    TO 

the  Constitution  expressly  guarantees  to  every 
citizen. 

It  is  urged  by  some  able  writers,  who  are  no  ad- 
vocates of  the  system  of  Joe  Smith,  but  exceedingly 
jealous  concerning  religious  liberty,  that,  as  the 
polygamy  of  the  Mormons  is  a  religious,  and  not  a 
civil  institution,  therefore  the  authority  of  Congress 
cannot  reach  it.  —  Let  us  examine  this  proposition. 

Was  it  the  intention  of  those  who  framed  the  Con- 
stitution, or  of  those  who  proposed  the  article  se- 
curing "  the  free  exercise  of  religion"  to  all  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  that  under  the  sanction  of  this 
liberty  of  religion,  usages  and  modes  of  conduct 
should  be  established,  by  any  society  or  sect,  sub- 
versive of  public  morals  ?  "Would  the  plea  of  "free 
exercise  of  religion  "  sustain  a  sect  who  made  steal- 
ing a  religious  duty,  when,  like  the  Spartans,  they 
could  do  it  undetected?  or  who  should  establish 
the  "  suttee,"  or  practice  the  destruction  of  feeble, 
sickly  children  ? 

The  great  majority  of  people  in  the  United  States 
are  believers  in  Christianity,  who  take  the  Bible  as 
their  Holy  Book. 

If  it  should  be  settled  that,  under  the  pretense  or 
even  belief  in  a  new  revelation,  an  association  of 
men  are  entitled  to  their  civil  rights  as  citizens, 
while  committing  acts  that  all  Christians  hold  to  be 
sin,  and  that  the  laws  of  the  thirty-seven  States,  and 
of  every  other  Christian  country,  punish  as  crimes, 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGKESS.  11 

would  not  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  majority 
be  sacrificed  to  those  of  the  minority  ? 

Would  not  the  very  foundations  of  our  popular 
institutions  be  in  jeopardy,  if  a  State,  with  such  a 
system  of  religious  government  as  Utah  is  now 
cursed  with,  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  ? 
Let  one  such  hierarchy ^  for  so  it  really  is,  be  legal- 
ized as  a  Sovereign  State,  would  not  the  lives  and 
liberties  of  the  citizens  of  all  the  other  States, 
unless  they  conformed  to  the  ruling  "  political  reli- 
gionism," as  Dugald  Stewart  significantly  terms 
these  amalgamations  of  sacred  and  secular  institu- 
tions, be  put  at  hazard  ? 

And  then  all  other  monstrous  phases  of  sin  and 
crime  would  find  an  open  door,  if  they  put  on  the 
thin  disguise  of  religious  forms.  It  is  on  record 
that,  about  the  year  130  of  our  era,  soon  after  the 
death  of  the  last  apostle,  St.  John,  a  sect  arose  in 
Judea  calling  themselves  Gainites,  because  they  pro- 
fessed to  esteem  Cain  worthy  of  the  greatest  honors. 
They  honored  those  who  carry  in  Scripture  the 
most  visible  marks  of  reprobation ;  as  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Sodom,  Esau,  Korah,  etc.  They  had,  in 
particular,  great  veneration  for  Judas  Iscariot, 
under  the  pretense  that  the  death  of  Christ  had 
saved  mankind.    (See  Buck's  J'heological  Dictionary,) 

Now,  were  a  sect  holding  these  Cainite  tenets  to 
arise  in  our  Republic,  while  only  professing  their 
creed,  they  would  not  be  amenable  to  the  laws; 


12  AN    APPEAL    TO 

but  should  they  attempt,  either  individually  or  col- 
lectively, to  imitate  the  evil  examples  which  tlhey 
reverenced,  under  the  plea  of  "  religious  liberty," 
would  they  not  be  held  criminal  by  the  laws  of  each 
and  all  the  States  where  they  put  their  theory  into 
action  ?  And  if  a  State  or  Territory  should  permit 
such  a  creed  as  Cainism  to  predominate  and  estab- 
lish its  priesthood  in  civil  power,  to  the  detriment 
of  other  forms  of  religious  and  political  liberty, 
would  it  not  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  put  down 
this  unlawful  combination  of  Cainites  for  their 
crimes  against  those  popular  rights  of  "  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  which  are  equally 
guaranteed  to  all  free  citizens  of  the  United  States  ? 

To  judge  accurately  between  good  and  evil  in 
social  life  is  sometimes  difficult,  because  of  the 
mingled  nature  of  human  influences  and  actions ; 
sometimes  the  evil  may  seem  good  and  sometimes 
produce  good  by  suppressing  greater  evil.  Thus, 
war  is  of  itself  a  great  evil ;  yet  it  may  do  much 
good  by  overthrowing  the  wrong  and  advancing 
the  right,  and  be  the  only  available  human  means 
of  preventing  far  worse  evils  than  war. 

The  evil  that  is  everywhere  in  this  world  mingled 
vnth  the  good,  is  the  result  of  the  nature  of  fallen 
humanity,  and  is  unlike  the  overt  act  of  sin  that 
marks  the  criminal  who  disobeys  the  laws  of  God. 
Such  disobedience  can  never,  under  any  circum- 
stances, do  good  to  mankind.    It  is  the  glory  of  our 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  13 

free  institutions  that  they  accord,  in  their  general 
principles  of  justice  and  equity,  with  the  standard 
of  the  Divine  Word ;  that  those  actions  which  the 
Moral  Law  forbids  as  sins  are  criminal  under  our 
codes,  and  that  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Gospel  and 
the  freedom  of  individual  opinion  and  conscience 
are  here  secured,  as  Christ  taught  His  disciples  to 
be  free. 

And  Christ  taught  also  another  lesson  that  we 
ought,  nationally  as  well  as  individually,  to  heed. 
He  taught  the  danger  of  transgressing  or  setting 
aside  any  one  principle  of  eternal  justice  and  right; 
that  the  man  who  disobeyed  one  commandment 
was  guilty  of  disobedience  to  all.  This  is  sound 
philosophical  and  legal  as  well  as  religious  truth. 
The  man  who  purposes  to  murder  or  steal  will  also 
bear  false  witness,  covet,  and,  in  short,  transgress 
every  law.  Divine  and  human,  that  stands  in  his 
way,  either  to  prevent  his  sin  or  to  punish  the 
overt  crime. 

Does  not  this  exposition  picture  Mormonism,  as 
it  has  been  developed  in  every  place  where  its  stand- 
ard has  been  set  up  ?  Its  leaders,  having  defied  the 
laws  of  God  and  of  all  the  States  of  the  Union,  by 
establishing  polygamy,  are  prepared  to  sustain  their 
unjust  and  iniquitous  institutions  by  the  overthrow 
of  the  laws  of  the  General  Government,  and  the 
Government  also,  if  that  were  possible. 

But  these  outrages  against  law  will  be  punished 


14  AN    APPEAL    TO 

and  the  Mormons  reduced  to  submission;  yet  no 
permanent  security  or  advantage  will  be  thereby 
gained,  unless  polygamy  is  abolished.  The  Country 
looks  to  Congress  for  the  redress  of  this  great  wrong 
on  our  Republican  institutions.  If  full  powers  are 
not  vested  in  the  Government,  then  let  an  Amend- 
ment TO  THE  Constitution  be  forthwith  submitted 
to  the  People. 

The  justice  of  the  measure  cannot  be  questioned. 
A  wife  has  no  separate  vote  at  the  polls;  she  is 
represented  by  her  husband,  because  the  Christian 
bond  of  marriage  makes  the  twain  one  in  interest, 
in  station,  and  in  the  social  and  legal  relations  of 
life.  Deprived  of  this  holy  safeguard  of  her  rights^ 
civil  and  religious,  there  is  no  barrier  between  wo- 
man and  the  most  crushing  despotism  which  the 
selfish  power  and  brutal  passions  of  man  may 
choose  to  wield  over  her. 

Shall  the  daughters  of  America,  the  pride  of  our 
country,  of  whom  we  boast  as  excelling  in  femi- 
nine purity  and  loveliness  of  character  as  well  as  in 
personal  beauty,  shall  these,  the  "  polished  stones '' 
of  our  social  and  political  fabric,  be  subjected  to  the 
possibility  of  such  foul  dishonor,  such  filthy  debase- 
ment, as  even  the  idea  that  polygamy  is  permitted 
under  the  Government  of  the  United  States  would 
bring  on  the  name  of  American  Women  ? 

The  Christian  people,  the  free,  independent,  self- 
governing  people,  who  should  submit  to  such  op- 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  15 

probrium,  might  well  "  say  to  corruption,  thou  art 
my  father ;  and  to  the  worm,  thou  art  my  mother 
and  my  sister."  "Would  not  even  the  crawling 
creature  be  disgraced  by  the  comparison?  The 
American  people  will  never  permit  Mornionism 
to  be  licensed  in  the  land  of  "Washington. 

Is  it  a  vain  boast  to  say,  that  the  decision  of  Con- 
gress on  this  great  question  of  true  Marriage,  will 
influence  the  character  of  Mankind?  Are  not  the 
nations  of  the  Old  World  looking  to  us  for  exam- 
ples to  guide  their  own  forms  of  change,  and  their 
own  efforts  for  development  ? 

Let  the  decision  go  forth  to  uphold  the  Primal 
Law  of  Marriage  in  the  homes  of  our  own  people, 
and  thus  fit  all  coming  generations  for  self-govern- 
ment, and  the  blessings  that  follow  the  peaceful 
development  of  human  power,  would  not  our  ex- 
ample give  honor  to  woman  and  glory  to  man? 
Would  not  our  form  of  Free  Government  be  ele- 
vated in  the  eyes  of  all  nations,  and  induce  the 
most  conservative  to  approve  a  system  by  which 
Liberty  represses  License,  and  Freedom  and  Purity 
go  hand  in  hand  ? 

To  the  Members  of  our  American  Congress  the 
decision  of  this  question,  so  important  to  us  and  to 
the  world,  is  committed. 

Remember  that  the  laws  of  nature  keep  the  sexes 
equal  in  numbers;  therefore  justice  demands  that 
the  wife  should  have  the  right  to  her  own  husband 

22 


16  AN    APPEAL    TO    CONGRESS. 

as  surely  secured,  by  the  laws  of  man,  as  the  right 
of  the  husband  is  secured  to  his  own  wife. 

The  duties  of  men  and  women  are  not  identical, 
but  relative ;  not  co-incident,  but  co-equal.  Man's 
great  work  is  on  the  material  universe;  "Woman 
moulds  the  nature  of  humanity.  The  Home  of  the 
family  is  the  source  of  the  State. 

The  foundation-stones  of  this  Capitol  of  our  coun- 
try are  not  more  needed  for  its  magnificent  and 
Heaven-aspiring  Dome,  than  the  Primal  Law  of 
Marriage  is  required  for  the  support  of  our  Eepub- 
lican  Institutions.  Should  we  weaken  or  withdraw 
the  sacred  influences  of  true  Marriage,  neither 
Ballot-box  nor  Sword  could  compel  obedience  to 
the  laws  of  Righteousness  required  in  the  life  of  a 
Free  and  Sovereign  Nation. 

ONE  OF  THE  PEOPLE, 

Author  of 

.**  Opinions  Concerning  the  Bible  Law  of  Marriage." 


